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The inaugural World Biogas Association (WBA) conference will take place in Brussels on the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, with delegates set to discuss options for pricing carbon into the circular economy.

In partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) of the European Commission, the conference, entitled ‘Making Carbon Count: pricing in externalities to drive the Circular Economy’, will take place on 11 December 2017 at the auditorium of the EESC.

Launched at COP22 in Marrakech in November 2016, the WBA was set up to demonstrate the value of the biogas industry in achieving global energy and food security, and meeting our Climate Change targets and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Attendees to the conference will discuss issues surrounding carbon pricing, carbon markets and how these could influence European policies on resource management and recovery. Many believe that by pricing in carbon externalities it is possible to increase the speed with which carbon emissions are reduced and limit the rise in global temperatures to less than two degrees celsius by 2100.

The panel of speakers - set to include Dr Janez Potocnik, Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel at the UNEP and former EU Commissioner for the Environment 2010-2014, and Felicity C Spors, Senior Carbon Finance Specialist at the World Bank - will also discuss a future Emissions Trading System and the EU’s upcoming Circular Economy Package and their potential effects on markets for secondary raw materials from waste.

The WBA claims that the two policies are potentially synergic, as pricing-in the value of avoided carbon emissions, or the cost of carbon emissions, could have a significant impact upon the markets for secondary raw materials from waste. The organisation is especially keen to explore this hypothesis with regards to food waste, but carbon pricing potentially affects most waste streams.

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